


Right Next Door All Night

by nubianamy



Series: (What It Looks Like and) What It Is [6]
Category: The West Wing
Genre: Episode: s01e08 Enemies, Family Dynamics, Friends to Lovers, M/M, Multi, Secret Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-22
Updated: 2020-12-22
Packaged: 2021-03-10 18:55:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,745
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28241991
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nubianamy/pseuds/nubianamy
Summary: Josh and the President talk about national parks, Sam and Mallory talk about the price of coffee, and Leo and Jed talk about managing their relationship.
Relationships: Abbey Bartlet/Jed Bartlet, Jed Bartlet/Leo McGarry
Series: (What It Looks Like and) What It Is [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2021147
Comments: 8
Kudos: 14





	Right Next Door All Night

**Author's Note:**

> Three cut scenes from episode 1x08 Enemies.

“… and the Great Sand Dunes National Park in Colorado has 750-foot dunes that make a deep humming sound when they settle.” 

“Yes, sir.” Josh leaned his chin heavily in the palm of his hand. “Well, this is something I never expected to be doing at…” He checked his watch. “…one-thirty-seven AM.”

The President smiled expectantly. “Talking about the Great Sand Dunes National Park?”

“I think you were the one talking, sir.”

“Listening, then. It’s a good way to learn something.”

“Listening to you in particular. I mean, isn’t that a reason to be married to somebody, because you actually want to be around them at one-thirty-seven in the morning?”

“I think you might find someday, Josh,” said the President, “that there are many reasons people choose to get married.”

“Yes, sir.” He hesitated, then added, “You wanted to be a priest.”

The President picked up a piece from the collection of captured ones beside the chess board. “Is that a question or a statement?”

“The second one. I mean, I knew that already. And I was just… jumping ahead, there. Sorry if my thought process wasn’t clear.” 

“No, I think I can make that cognitive leap. Yes, I wanted to be a priest.” 

“And then you met Abbey.” 

The President looked at him quizzically. “Are you telling the story now, Josh?”

Josh sat back. “I mean—that’s the logical progression?”

“Is that right? Should I go back to national parks now, or are you dead set on schooling me on my life choices?”

He looked at his lap and mumbled something. The President leaned forward.

“Would you repeat that, please?”

“I’m just saying,” Josh said more loudly, “that it strikes me as strange that you’re here talking to me when the First Lady just got back from Pakistan after being away for three weeks. Sir.”

When Josh looked up again, the President had stopped smiling.

“Maybe that invisible line you shouldn’t cross is hard to spot after one-thirty,” he said, “but you crossed it, Josh.”

He nodded, trying not to shrink back. The President sighed, setting the chess piece back on the table, and gazed up at the portrait of Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

“To whom have you been talking?”

“I—lots of people, sir, but not about this.” When the President frowned, Josh added quickly, “I mean it, this is… my own speculation.”

“Well, you can quit it right now,” the President snapped. “Abbey and I don’t need anybody else telling us how badly we’re managing our marriage, and especially not somebody who’s never _been_ married.” 

“Yes, sir.” 

“I love my wife very, very much. Do you know what else I love?”

“National parks?”

“That she’s a strong woman,” the President went on. “She has her own mind about the way life should be. And she isn’t afraid to break the rules when they clearly aren’t working.”

“Okay?” Josh watched the President closely. “What rules are we talking about here?”

“You are not my lawyer, Josh, or hers. I’m not about to enumerate them for you.” 

“I’m just trying to—“

“Abbey is currently reconnecting with someone else,” the President said. He spoke calmly and candidly, as though he were delivering a televised address. “Someone she also loves very much. Because when we got married, I wasn’t honest with her about what I really wanted. She felt blindsided because she thought I should have disclosed certain things before she agreed to marry me.”

Josh tried to remain still, but it wasn’t easy. “Certain things.”

“About other people. People about whom I also had strong feelings.” 

“What does this do with you wanting to be a priest again?”

The President sighed ruefully. “As it turns out, nothing at all. But for a while, I was sure the priesthood was a better choice than any of the other options I was imagining for myself.”

Josh touched the presidential seal on the rug with the toe of his shoe. “I really… don’t know what to say, sir.” 

“That’s a good look on you, Josh.” 

“Can you—” He shook his head. “You know, maybe I shouldn’t ask anything else. Would it be safer not to know? Like, with regard to subpoenas and things?”

“If it comes to that, CJ has a carefully crafted message, and you should follow her lead. And the only reason you need to know now when you didn’t need to know earlier is because you asked. So if you want to know more, I’ll tell you, in part because I trust you, but primarily because I would never want you to make assumptions about Abbey.” 

Josh swallowed. “Thank you, sir. And I never would.”

“That’s good, then.” The President offered a small smile. “So is there anything else?”

“I think you haven’t quite touched on all fifty-four parks yet…” 

“Josh.” 

He rubbed his face. “It’s just, I’ve never had the President offer to reveal details about his wife's love life to me before. It’s kind of a lot to take in.”

“I should say there are not many people who would have the opportunity.” 

“Well, okay… am I going to have to play, like, twenty questions here, or would you just tell me who it is if I asked?”

“Leo told me I could tell you.” 

“Why would Leo have to give you—“ Josh paused, then his eyes widened until he was frankly staring. “Oh, shit. … Sorry.” 

The President waved him off. “I’ll give you a bye on that one.” 

“I was sure you were going to say it was Ron Ehrlich.” 

He laughed. “To my knowledge, the Chairman is happily married now, and is breaking no rules. I will neither confirm nor deny awareness of any other individuals with whom Abbey might be spending her time.” 

Josh grimaced. “This is… kind of freaking me out, sir. Can I, like, walk around while I think about this?”

“Go ahead.” The President watched him rise to his feet and pace the Oval. 

“It’s not that Leo’s not a great guy,” Josh said. “But I feel a little like the person who’s been told not to think of an elephant, except this time the elephant is all the times I’ve seen the First Lady and the Chief of Staff flirting with one another.” 

“Convenient that they are prone to that.” He rose to his feet and moved to stand beside Josh. “Convenient, also, that she developed feelings for someone whom I hold in such high regard.” 

“But he’s your best friend,” Josh protested. “Isn’t that extra weird for you?”

The President raised an elegant eyebrow. “Weird is not the word I would use.”

“Of course, sir, I’m sorry. And I think I’ve said that way too many times tonight.” 

“Better now than later.” He shook his head. “I would be a fool if I thought their privacy was guaranteed, but at the very least, I would wish for Leo and Abbey’s relationship to be like an idealized portrait of a national park. I would like for them to have the opportunity to enjoy it unmolested by tourists or littered by trash.” 

Josh wrinkled his nose. “Yeah, but that’s kind of the opposite of what really happens to national parks, right?”

“I know that all too well,” the President said grimly. 

* * *

“Sam?” Sam looked up to see Mallory standing in the door of his office. “Can I come in?”

“You just left,” he said.

“Yes.”

“And now you… want to come back in.”

“Yes.” She glanced around the busy hallway, then slipped back into his office and shut the door. “I didn’t tell you what I’d come to tell you.”

“You didn’t come to invite me to a date to the opera after which there would be no option for sex?”

“No, I did. I did that part. You said yes.”

“Yes, that’s my recollection of the last two minutes.” He squinted at her. “What—“

“I think my father’s having an affair,” she said in a rush.

Sam froze. “Is that door closed?”

“I just closed it, Sam.”

“And you just said… you think Leo McGarry is having an affair.”

“Yes.” She sighed, leaning against the back of the closed door, and stared at the ceiling. “I didn’t know if I should tell you, but I wasn’t sure if I could get through the evening without it coming up.”

“Because Chinese opera always reminds you of cheating?”

“Because my mother just kicked my dad out of the house,” she said, “and he’s at the hotel supposedly by himself, and I’m _sure_ when I went up to his room today, there was still someone in there. He came right to the door. He never does that when he’s at the hotel. He always asks me if I want coffee in the room because the price of the coffee at the hotel is ridiculous. That’s what he always says, _ridiculous._ And today, he came right into the hallway, and we had breakfast, and I said, do you want me to pay, and he said no, this is my hotel, and…” She tossed her hands into the air. “The coffee cost six dollars and fifty cents.”

“Ridiculous.”

“Yeah, who would pay that much for coffee!“

“No, I don’t mean the coffee.” Sam gave her a worried look. “I’m saying I’m having a hard time imagining your father cheating on your mother. Are you sure it might not be something else he doesn’t want you to see?”

“Well, the alternative is—“ She shook her head. “Never mind. I should stop talking.”

“I can see if I can find out more, without being obvious about it.”

Mallory laughed. “Are you serious? Being obvious is inherent in your nature, Sam. I don’t think you have another mode.”

“Well, then, I’ll ask him directly.”

The way she looked at him, with such outrage, was so much exactly like the way her father would have, he almost smiled. “You’re going to _ask_ my father if he’s having an affair.”

“Yes. And because he and I are colleagues, he will feel free to be candid with me.”

She shook her head. “Good luck with that. I would ask to watch, but I don’t actually believe in cruel and inhumane punishment.”

Sam blinked. “Maybe I shouldn’t ask him, then.”

“Oh, no, you should,” she said. “Just… be prepared to duck.”

* * *

It was after eleven when Leo finally stood up from his desk, grimacing, and crossed through the doorway to the Oval Office.

“Sir?”

“Yeah.” It took Jed three seconds to look up from his reading and nod at him.

“I thought you went home.”

“I came back. Even I can’t read four hundred pages of nonsense that quickly.” Jed took off his glasses and gestured Leo over, setting the papers down on his desk. “What’s on your mind?”

“I can leave you to your work, if you want to finish.”

“You really think I don’t want you here?”

“I’m saying I don’t want to be a distraction.”

“Yeah, well.” Jed shot him a sheepish look. “Aren’t I the one who came into your office four hours ago to ‘see what you were doing.’ Like I could be any more obvious. What do they call that now? A booty call?”

“Sir,” Leo said uneasily, glancing at Mrs. Landingham’s office.

“Everybody else went home, Leo. Anyway, I know a rebuff when I hear one. You don’t have to apologize for saying no.”

“It’s not—“ he protested. “I mean, I didn’t. I wasn’t saying anything when I suggested you call Abbey and turn on the game. I just… have a lot on my mind.”

Jed nodded slowly. “But nothing you want to tell me about.”

He sighed. “You don’t need to be bothered by that.”

Jed nodded again, still looking thoughtful, before saying, “You know, when Yellowstone National Park was established in 1872, the intent was to provide the American people with, and I quote, ‘a public park or pleasuring-ground for benefit and enjoyment.’ That was all. It wasn’t until Woodrow Wilson created the National Park Service in 1916 that the parks began to be managed and protected.” He gestured at Leo. “Since I took office, I can’t help but notice my staff have put a lot of effort and energy into managing and protecting me. Am I an historic object to be preserved?”

Leo couldn’t hold back his smile any longer. “No, but you are a finite resource.”

Jed smiled back, arching an eyebrow. “I was hoping you might say _national treasure.”_

“In your dreams,” he murmured. “If your staff—or your wife—happen to be doing that, sir, it’s only because we want to permit you to focus on the things that are important, instead of wasting your energy on minutia.”

“Leo, when it comes to you, it’s never a waste.”

For a moment, he could see beyond Jed’s playful affect, to the lonely intensity that simmered beneath. He took a measured breath. “There was one thing.”

“All right?”

“When Sam came to me today to mention he was inviting Mallory to the Chinese opera… and thank you for backing me up today with Mallory, by the way.”

“You’re stalling,” Jed said softly.

Leo avoided his eyes. “Sam asked me if I was having an affair.”

“What did you tell him?”

“I said that I was not, and even if I were, it would be none of his business.”

“Did you think about telling him the truth?”

Leo huffed. “That _is_ the truth, sir.”

“It is nowhere near the truth.”

“Well, the alternative was to panic and yell at him, and I wasn’t about to distract him from his work. Anyway.” He shook his head in frustration. “I just don’t see how to begin the conversation.”

“I think you missed two opportunities today to begin it,” Jed said. “And to think I stood up for you tonight when Mallory was giving you a hard time.”

“Yeah, well, I’d bet you dollars to donuts she’s the one who suggested it to Sam. When she came to my hotel this morning, she was all ready to be invited inside so she could remind me what a crappy father I am, and I practically shut the door in her face.”

“A wise choice. Seeing Abbey in your bed would have caused a riot.” Jed tapped the desk. “Remind me why we decided not to tell Mal when we told the rest of the girls?”

“Clearly because she’d hate me forever.”

“Now you’re just being melodramatic. Isn’t that my role?”

“Abbey’s, I think. You get to be grandiose and messianic.” Leo rolled his eyes, trying not to blush. “There’s something particularly lewd about you looking at me that way in the Oval Office.”

Jed gave him a superior smile. “Does that mean you’re going to say yes to my unspoken invitation to join me at the residence?”

He ran a hand over his head. “Well, there you go, speaking it.”

“I mostly want an opportunity to tell you you’re not a crappy father, in a way that will stick. If you think me saying that is enough, then by all means, head back to your hotel.”

“Sir…” Leo tried his best to convey the same sense of desperation he saw in Jed’s expression, and watched him blanch. “If it were only about what I wanted, you know my answer would be yes, every time. But there’s gossip about the banking bill, gossip about the cabinet meeting. Everyone is talking—and that was just today. We can’t risk this becoming a national issue.”

“If it’s not this, Leo, it’ll be something else. You take away a dog’s bone, it’ll play with a stick. We made it work when I was governor.”

“It’s not the same and you know it.”

“No, it’s even more important now.” He could see Jed’s hands moving restlessly over the desk. “You want to manage and protect me? Find a way to do it without cutting me off from you.”

“I don’t know if I can do that, sir,” he admitted. At the sudden despair in Jed’s eyes, he added, “but I suppose I could justify coming over for a little while tonight. To celebrate the designation of a new national park.”

“Absolutely.” Jed rose to his feet, nodding in relief. “A national monument, actually. The Antiquities Act allows for creation of national monuments, while national parks may only be created by an act of Congress.”

“Of course, sir.” Leo gestured toward the exit. “You can tell me all about it.”


End file.
